1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a supporting structure and a docking station using the same; in particular, to a supporting structure and a docking station using the same adapted for a portable electronic device.
2. Description of Related Art
The laptop is usually required to have light weight, a small size and thin wall for easy carry-on convenience so that a user can use the laptop in different situations. However, compared to desktop computer, the number of the function expansion slots, such as USB, VGA, HDMI and so on, and the expandability of the laptop are limited by the smaller size. In addition, when the user wants to use the peripheral equipment through the laptop, the connections between the peripheral equipment and the laptop must be established. The aforementioned peripheral equipment could be a displaying screen, a mouse, a keyboard, a printer an external hard drive, a network interface card, a scanner and so on. However, when the user wants to put away the laptop, all of the connections of the peripheral equipment need to be pulled out from the laptop.
To omit the acts of inserting or pulling the connecting plugs of these peripheral equipment into or out from the laptop, the connections between the peripheral equipment and the laptop can be established through an expansion base. The expansion base can make and keep available connections to the peripheral equipment. Additionally, the expansion base can determine whether the laptop is electrically connected to the expansion base so as to operate the peripheral equipment. Thus, when the laptop is connected to the expansion base, the user can operate the peripheral equipment by controlling the laptop. When the user wants to take the laptop away, the user simply interrupts the connection between the expansion base and the laptop so that the connection between the peripheral equipment and the laptop can be immediately stopped.
Please refer to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 illustrates a side view of portable electronic device placed on the conventional expansion base. For example, the two portable electronic devices 13 and 13′ are laptops, respectively. In addition, the conventional expansion base 1 includes a base 10, a plate 11 and at least one supporting pillar 12. The plate 11 and the supporting pillar 12 are disposed on the base 10. When the portable electronic device 13 or 13′ is placed on the conventional expansion base 1, a connecting port (not shown in FIG. 1) of the portable electronic device 13 or 13′ connects a connector 14 of the conventional expansion base 1 to establish an electrical connection. Meanwhile, the bottom surface of the portable electronic device 13 or 13′ abuts the plate 11 and the supporting pillar 12.
However, because the height of the supporting pillar 12 protruded from the base 10 cannot be adjusted, the conventional expansion base 1 is only suitable for the portable electronic device 13 having specific thickness or special shape. When another portable electronic device 13′ having larger size in shape is placed on the conventional expansion base 1, it is likely that the portable electronic device 13′ having larger size in shape may not be connected to the connecter 14 of the conventional expansion device 1 since the height of the supporting pillar 12 protruded from the base 10 is fixed. As such, the electrical connection between the portable electronic device 13′ having larger size in shape and the conventional expansion base 1 may not be made well.